Online purchases have become very common due to a number of benefits as compared to ordinary purchases—the buyer does not have to drive to the store, while the store itself can save on rent, which has a favorable impact on the end price.
The growth in popularity of online purchases has resulted in services for Internet purchases appearing also on mobile platforms, such as iOS and Android. At present, it is not very difficult to purchase a desired item from a notebook, a smartphone or a tablet.
It should be noted that different devices have different suitability for making online purchases. For example, with a notebook or stationary computer it is possible to familiarize oneself more fully with the future purchase, since the larger screen dimensions and the use of a windows interface as in the Windows or Mac OS operating systems), as well as the high operating speed let one do so without problem. At the same time, with a tablet one can do practically the same thing, while still remaining quite mobile, for example, while in transit or while taking a stroll. And with a smartphone one can make use of cellular communications to discuss possible pluses and minuses of a future purchase with a consultant.
Another problem has arisen at present, and it is related to the fact that the user may have more than one device. For example, the user has seen a new type of product from advertising on his smartphone, that same evening he uses his notebook to study the product in detail, and on the next day he makes the purchase using a tablet while on the way to work. But in this case the user is forced each time to go through the procedure of selecting the product again prior to its subsequent purchase. From the standpoint of the online service, it remains unclear which criteria the customer has used to find the product (reviews, functions supported, price, and so on), what other products he has looked at, what kind of technical reviews he has read, or which criteria he used to select the store (quality, speed of delivery, price).
Thus, there exists an unmet need in the art for a system to link all the user's devices into a single profile to keep current all the information requests of the user, including those involving online purchases.